Saturday, July 19, 2008

The climate and energy pundits are in a tizzy over Al Gore's recent speech calling for the US to shift to 100% renewable energy in the next ten years. Though many admire Gore's chutzpah, pretty much everyone is ridiculing the goal as unrealistic.

Of course it is. That's the entire point. If you're Al Gore - a free agent, but one with the ability to influence the US policy - you don't set a compromise target, you aim for the moon. The use of the moon shot analogy in his speech was no accident.

Any renewable energy goal set by Obama or McCain will be judged against Gore's standard. Until now, the US has struggled to pass renewable portfolio standards on the order of 10-20%. Now, if say Obama calls for a 25% RPS by 2020, it will seem realistic.